Despite forfeiting
three years from his pension consideration, a former Warren County sheriff has collected tens of
thousands of dollars in retirement benefits since admitting more than two decades ago he tried to curry
sexual favors from a teenage boy.

But state
officials say they may take a second look at Edward Bullock's $1,500-per-month pension after he was indicted last week on charges he sexually abused a
boy on several occasions in the 1980s.

Christopher Santarelli, deputy director of communications for the
New Jersey Treasury Department, said this week that officials had yet to receive information relating
to the indictment. A conviction on such charges, however,could spur changes in Bullock's
state Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS, benefits, he said.

"If there is
a new indictment for dates covered before or after the forfeited time, the PERS
Board may have to reconsider the matter," Santarelli wrote in an email.

Bullock, who
lives in Ocean County and turns 85 on Monday, was
indicted last week on three counts each of first-degree aggravated sexual
assault and second-degree sexual assault.
He is accused of sexually abusing a boy between December 1986 and
January 1988 while Bullock was sheriff. The
assaults began, court records indicate, when the boy was 10 years old.

Bullock has
yet to turn himself in to authorities, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office
said today.

In the
meantime, he continues to collect a pension that in 2013, the most recent year
available, totaled $1,587 per month.

He has been
collecting the benefits on a permanent basis since he was released from prison
in early 1993 after serving nine months of a three-year sentence. The prison
term came after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct.

Bullock had
applied for an effective retirement date of January 1992, based on 26 years of
service. He was not awarded monthly pension checks while behind bars but upon his release from jail his monthly pension was $1,075,
The Express-Times archives indicate.

State
officials said at the time that pension benefits can be reduced or completely
eliminated as a result of misconduct in office.

The Public Employment Retirement
System Board of Trustees, however, voted in 1994 to forfeit all service and
salary credits Bullock earned toward his pension between January 1989 and
December 1991, the entirety of his third term as sheriff, because of actions
deemed "dishonorable," Santarelli said this week.

As a result
of the board's decision, the salary and service credits Bullock earned during his third term were not included in his retirement allowance calculation, effectively
reducing the amount of his monthly pension. Bullock later appealed the
decision, taking the case to the Appellate Court where the board's ruling was
upheld, Santarelli said.

An official figure
of how much Bullock has collected from the Public Employee Retirement System
since his retirement was not immediately available. However, based upon previous
pension figures and state records available for the past two years, the total
amount is estimated to be at least $235,000.